High School Insider: NY State Class A Championship - West Islip 12, Ithaca 7

The West Islip Lions stormed out of Long Island’s Suffolk County (Section XI) to win the program’s fourth Class A state championship in five years. Head coach Scott Craig guided a team that was perhaps somewhat underrated at the beginning of the season to a 12-7 victory over the Ithaca Little Red (Section IV) Saturday, returning the Lions to the same level of success it experienced from 2006 to 2010, when they won four of five championships.

But this new Lions team demonstrated its own balance and precise execution, also benefiting from some outstanding play in the cage by senior Jack Kelly (Brown), who was spectacular with 14 saves against Ithaca.

“Our goalie plays outstanding every game,” Craig said. “We knew Jack was going to show up. They did a lot of high stuff on Jack, and he sees the ball so well you really can’t shoot that way on him, and I think that hurt them – to let him see the ball coming out of the stick.”

Kelly said that the team knew it was facing a tough team in Ithaca, which defeated the previous top-ranked Class A team in the state in Fairport of Section V.

“We knew we were going to be in for it, and we knew they would be a great team,” Kelly said.

The Little Red had a 2-0 lead after the first quarter on goals by juniors Doug Biondi and Jaedon Henderson and appeared to have an edge in momentum. But in the second quarter, after Ithaca face-off man Connor Manning was called for an illegal stick, the Lions scored after only 18 seconds on the extra-man, a goal by Brendan Smith (Marquette) on a feed from junior middie Nick Aponte (Penn State), who would have an explosive three-goal, four-assist performance in leading the West Islip offense.

“They went up on us 2-0, but we had good looks at the cage,” Craig said. “We had four or five good scoring opportunities that we don’t convert. So the lead, it wasn’t like we weren’t getting our offense on track.”

The extra-man opportunity from the illegal stick definitely got the Lions on track, starting a four-goal run with tallies by Aponte, Jon Reese (Yale) and Anthony DeLuca (CW Post) and giving them a 4-2 lead before Biondi would score at the 1:11 mark to bring it back to a one-goal game. Biondi, using his big frame to bull in on defenders, scored his third goal of the day 1:14 into the third quarter, tying the game at 4-4.

But the Lions, perhaps showing their resilience, stamina and battle-tested swagger having fought their way off the Island, took their game to the next level, rattling off the next six goals, including three from senior Tom Moore (Denver) and two more from Aponte, the game’s offensive MVP, which effectively put the game out of reach at 10-4 with 4:16 left in the third.

“We’re a great third-quarter team,” Craig said. “Have been for years, and I don’t know why that takes place, but it does. At halftime, we went in, we had a good game plan, thought we were going to get a lot of quality shots, corrected where we were shooting on the goalie, and we had a great run in the third quarter, just took control of the game.”

West Islip’s face-off tandem of Paul Riportella (8 of 11, Marquette) and Reese (9 of 10) was outstanding, helping the Lions win all but four draws (17 of 21) on the day. And thanks to a tremendous effort from long-stick middie Anthony Santo (1A, 6GB), who hounded ball carriers and came up with several important loose balls, the Lions were tough to beat between the lines for an Ithaca team that – up to this point – had been the more athletic team in most contests.

“Fortunately enough, we were able to control the face-off X, and I thought going into the game that was going to the key to the ballgame,” Craig said. “It turned out it was.”

Ithaca’s troubles at the face-offs were handicapped coming into the game, as Manning (Guilford), who did not even take a face-off after the illegal-stick penalty, has been battling a leg injury. Coaches said they didn’t think he could go; he told them he could, and then when he did take the field – that’s when he was called for the penalty.

“That’s just the way things happen sometimes,” Ithaca coach Frank Welch said, adding that his team didn’t perform as well as it was capable. “One team has to win, and one to has to lose, and the better team today won. But that’s a pretty good team to lose to. I don’t know if there’s a good loss, but that’s a really good team.”

Ithaca brings back several key juniors, including Lasda, defender Luke Mendola, Henderson, Biondi and Sassone-Lawless. Welch said he couldn’t thank his departing seniors enough for helping lead them to the state championship two years in a row.”

“These seniors have just been great for us,” he said.

Craig said his team bids farewell to seniors who had grown up in the West Islip program, watching the success of past year’s teams and learning what it took to get there from those players.

“It was a situation where it was a senior group that had been taught how to win by their peers, not necessarily by the coaches, and when it was their turn, they went a county championship last year, and they weren’t satisfied,” Craig said.

Kelly said that for his class, every year was viewed as a new one for West Islip lacrosse.

“We write our own legacy,” Kelly said. “We had great teams in the county – Smithtown West, Ward Melville. We came out every game and said ‘we want to win this.’ We lost to Chaminade at the beginning of the season, and no one wanted to feel like that again.”

With its only the loss to Chaminade on its record this season, West Islip finishes the year as arguably the top team in the country next to Garden City of Class B.

The championship win is the fifth Class A crown for West Islip since 2006 (tying West Genesee for the most Class A titles this century). Since 2006, Craig’s coaching record stands at 149-7. Returning IL’s No. 29 Young Gun Junior and Ryan Wieczorek (Delaware), who had a big day with a goal and pair of assists, the Lions are already off to a good start for 2013.

Below, check out some more great shots from our man Larry Palumbo, who was there shooting for Inside Lacrosse. And be sure to follow @ILPreps for coverage of the national high school and recruiting scene.